*** Germany's ex-chancellor Kohl home after long hospital stay | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Germany's ex-chancellor Kohl home after long hospital stay

Germany's former chancellor Helmut Kohl has returned home from hospital, where he spent 24 weeks in and out of intensive care over complications following a hip replacement surgery, newspaper Bild reported Friday.

 "For weeks, the doctors and their teams fought to ensure that the chancellor of reunification could leave hospital alive -- they have now succeeded," said the newspaper.

 "He is doing well under the circumstances, but he is not healthy," it added.

 Kohl, 85, is Germany's longest serving post-war leader who is celebrated as the architect of the country's reunification in 1990.

 The conservative was chancellor from 1982 to 1998, and was also one of the authors of the European single currency.

 He has had various health problems in recent years. He suffered a stroke in 2009 and had cardiac surgery in 2012.

 He was admitted to hospital in May for a hip operation. But complications arose requiring further operations, including one on the intestines.